While children are dying of malnutrition, our leaders are busy comforting the corporate sector   This week’s show of ‘Walk the Talk’ by Shekhar Gupta was the third in a series of episodes that seemed to be dedicated to bringing forth the corporate viewpoint to counter the current environment of mistrust, post radiagate. While the first two were with Ratan Tata and Deepak Parekh, obvious corporate representatives, it is telling that as...

Taking a strong view against operators who have failed to self-certify their base transceiver stations mounted on mobile towers, Minister of State for Communications and IT Sachin Pilot on Monday asked the Department of Telecommunications to conduct random checks of all BTS for electromagnetic radiation and impose a fine on those found violating the norms. While talking to The Hindu, Mr. Pilot said there would be no further extension of deadline...

The Congress has proposed the introduction of an RTI-like legislation exclusively for “corporate corridors”, floating what looks like a nascent idea at a time some industrialists have criticised the government after the leak of the Niira radia tapes. The suggestion was made in the latest issue of the Congress mouthpiece Sandesh and released today at the plenary where Sonia made an anti-corruption drive the cornerstone of her speech. “The Right to Information...

A day after stating that lobbying and public relations were part of a democratic set-up, corporate affairs minister Salman Khurshid said the government might explore whether corporate lobbying could be included under the Right to Information (RTI) Act or a similar law. “It is a democratic right of people, but there should be a legitimate limit on this. No one said that lobbying is illegal, but it should not go beyond...

While the lay public may have been shocked by the revelation of an often cosy relationship between public relations (PR) professionals and the media, brought out by the Niira radia telephone tapes, few in the media or in business would have been surprised. Few editors and reporters today can say they have not been approached for “friendly stories” or threatened with ad blackouts or block access for failure to publish...